1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to oil and gas drilling, and more particularly to apparatus and methods for installing high-speed networking components in downhole drilling strings.
2. Background of the Invention
The goal of accessing data from a drill string has been expressed for more than half a century. As exploration and drilling technology has improved, this goal has become more important in the industry for successful oil, gas, and geothermal well exploration and production. For example, to take advantage of the advances in the design of various tools and techniques for oil and gas exploration, it would be beneficial to have real time data such as temperature, pressure, inclination, salinity, etc. Several attempts have been made to devise a successful system for accessing such drill string data. However, due to the complexity, expense, and unreliability of such systems, many attempts to create such a system have failed to achieve significant commercial acceptance.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,670,880 issued to Hall et al., the inventors disclosed a “downhole transmission system” that overcomes many of the problems and limitations of the prior art. In the Hall patent, data is transmitted along the drill string in real time. This is accomplished by various transmission hardware components integrated directly into the drill string. The Hall patent discloses apparatus and methods wherein various downhole tools and sensors communicate with surface equipment in real time.
Although the Hall patent describes technology that is applicable to drill pipe and other downhole tools that lack a “secondary shoulder” in the tool joint, the Hall technology is preferably used with “double-shouldered” pipe, namely drill pipe that has both a primary and secondary shoulder. Double-shouldered pipe is ideal because the secondary shoulder provides an ideal location for mounting data transmission hardware. The secondary shoulder is ideal because it receives significantly less make-up torque and stress than the primary shoulder and it also provides more protection to data transmission hardware than does the primary shoulder.
Nevertheless, the drilling industry continues to extensively use drill pipe that lacks a secondary shoulder. For example, many standard API (American Petroleum Institute) connections lack a secondary shoulder. This reality makes the mounting and implementation of data transmission hardware more challenging in these types of drill pipe.
Thus, what are needed are apparatus and methods for adapting the Hall technology, as well as other data transmission technologies, to work more effectively with other types and configurations of drill pipe, namely those that lack a primary and/or secondary shoulder. What are further needed are apparatus and methods for installing data transmission hardware in types of drill pipe having imprecise or inconsistent tolerances. Finally, what are needed are apparatus and methods for universally installing data transmission hardware in many different types of downhole pipe or downhole tools.